The present invention relates to a visual aid in the form of magnifying spectacles for use for cosmetic purposes, particularly as an aid for plucking the eyebrows.
Many people, particularly women, find it desirable to pluck their eyebrows periodically for cosmetic purposes and a magnifying mirror is commonly used to assist this process. However, a magnifying mirror is not always readily available and there is therefore a need for a compact and simple magnifying visual aid for this purpose.
There is a further problem in the case of those people who wear spectacles because the lenses of conventional spectacles prevent access to the eyebrows thereby necessitating the removal of the spectacles. However, the user is then frequently incapable of seeing their eyebrows with sufficient clarity to enable them to pluck their eyebrows with sufficient accuracy with the result that the user is frequently obliged to leave their spectacles in situ and to attempt to pluck their eyebrows behind their spectacle lens, which is both awkward and time consuming. A very similar problem arises for those women who wear spectacles when they wish to apply cosmetics, such as eyeliner or mascara, to their eyes. A problem also arises for those people who are shortsighted or longsighted but do not wear corrective spectacles.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,840,294 discloses spectacles for use in the application of eye make-up. The spectacles include a crosspiece which extends across the face of the user and which carries two upstanding lenses which are independently pivotable between an upright position, in which they extend over the eyes of the user, and a flapped-down position, in which the associated eye is exposed. The crosspiece includes a bridgepiece which extends over the nose of the user and which is situated in the same plane as the lenses, when they are in the upright position. No dimensions are given for the lenses but it is apparent from the drawings that they are some 40 mm or more high. This means that, as may be seen in the drawings of the specification, the lenses substantially obscure the eyebrows of the user and thus prevent access to them, when the lenses are in the upright position. When plucking the eyebrows the person concerned necessarily needs to have both eyes open since otherwise the necessary stereoscopic vision is not possible and it is therefore not possible to grasp an individual hair with the aid of tweezers. When both lenses of the spectacles of the prior document are in the upright position, the lenses prevent access to the eyebrows, particularly as the hands of the user necessarily approach the eyebrows from below. Eyebrow plucking is, therefore, impossible. If one lens is pivoted downwardly to provide access to the associated eyebrow, if that eye is closed and the user looks only through the other eye, eyebrow plucking is impossible for the reason explained above. If, however, the user keeps both eyes open, eyebrow plucking is also impossible due to the fact that one eye has a lens over it while the other does not which means that correctly focussed stereoscopic vision is impossible.